Old Friends
by karloss999
Summary: Harry Potter pays a visit to an 'old friend'. Dark!Harry, implication of H/Hr.


_**A/N**_ Another Dark!Harry oneshot. This one is considerably darker than the last one. No, I don't intend to expand on why Harry and Co went Dark, what they are going to do to the world or what Harry has become. Or what the Games are...

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Lord Voldemort was dead! The wizarding world celebrated for almost a full week. Then it mourned the dead for a full month. And then every wizard and witch in Britain noticed that nobody had seen or hear of Harry Potter since the Battle of Hogwarts. He was... gone.

Barely hours after the last funeral ended Hermione Granger left for Australia, never to be seen again. Shortly after receiving his NEWT scores Neville Longbottom left for Brazil, and disappeared into the Amazon rainforest without a trace. A week after Luna Lovegood and Ginevra Weasley left Hogwarts for the last time they dropped off the face of the earth. Indeed, over the next ten years many 'Heroes of Hogwarts' went missing. It became one of the great mysteries of the wizarding world. Did they retreat from the public eye? Are some secret followers of Voldemort avenging their dead master? Did the Dark Lord cast some terrible curse on them before he died? Is this all a cover-up and they are working in some secret anti-dark lord team? There were many theories but no answers.

Fifteen years after the disappearance of Harry Potter the election of Minister of Magic had a most controversial result. With so many heroes of the last war missing there was only minimal opposition to Draco Malfoy taking this most prestigious seat. That was also when the troubles begun.

At first it seemed like nothing, a few muggleborn disappearing here and there. Then, almost a full month after the first disappearances a Pureblood manor had its alert wards triggered. When the Auror force finally arrived to investigate they found it empty, a strange symbol carved into the front door.

For a full year the ministry was fruitlessly searching for who or what-ever was responsible for the continuous 'attacks'. The only thing linking them together were the symbols carved into every mansion breached and the complete lack of any signs of battle. It went so far that when the Nott manor was 'attacked' the Aurors found still-warm half-eaten food in the dining room. During this whole time muggleborns and even halfbloods continued to disappear without a trace, but the ministry spent little care about that.

For minister Malfoy the breaking point was when his wife disappeared from their bed. Literally. He had gone to the loo and when he returned she was nowhere to be found. Suffice to say, the manor used by the minister was abandoned and a new one built. For seven more months the sporadic disappearances of whole households of Purebloods continued and despite the massive funding increase neither the Aurors nor Unspeakables were able to figure out who was responsible. Eventually Draco Malfoy found almost all of his support was either 'missing' or leaving the country.

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Returning home after yet another cursed day in the Ministry Draco spent no time at all walking over to his liquor cabinet and filling a glass with firewhisky. As he rose it to his lips a voice he had not heard for almost seventeen years had the crystal glass shatter on the floor. "Hello, Ferret."

Slowly turning Draco tried to reach for his wand, only to discover it was not there. Finishing his turn he saw an... almost absurd scene. Harry Potter, dressed in an elaborate muggle suit, sat at the acromantula-silk chair Draco considered one of his more extravagant buys, calmly sipping wine from, if the bottle on the table next to him was any indication, sometime very, very long ago. "Potter." It was impossible to tell if his voice was more filled with surprise or fear.

Harry took a long sip of the wine, it _was_ one of his favourites, "Such observational skills. How impressive." his voice was equal parts boredom and sarcasm.

"How did you get in here?" Draco covertly touched the 'panic button' that signalled the guards outside to come charging in.

"The front door." Harry smirked, "Don't bother. Your guards are long dead." he took another sip as colour left the blond Slytherin's face. "Do sit down. We wouldn't want you to faint now, do we." The chair sliding into him from behind had Draco fall into it. Only now did he notice that the room was far too dark.

"What do you want?" he was not prepared for Harry to laugh.

Harry took yet another sip from his glass before speaking. "You mean I can't just drop by for a chat with an old friend?" he smiled, "A fine drink, maybe some games later..." Draco suddenly felt a chill go down his spine. 'Games' did not sound... right.

"Po... Harry, what happened to you?" the laughter reminded Draco of something he had heard a long time ago... Something he had hoped to never hear again.

"I learned."

"Learned what?" Draco pushed when it became obvious Harry wouldn't elaborate.

"I learned what Power truly is." Only now did Draco notice that the glass was not getting emptier, the bottle was. "A beautiful little enchantment, isn't it?" Harry smiled that cold smile again, "It makes enjoying these moments so much easier." Draco noticed the room was slowly getting colder. "So, _my old_ _friend_ , Sit back and listen." Harry smiled, "For you are about to hear the best story of your life." chuckles from the encroaching darkness had Draco attempt to flee, only to discover he couldn't move. "Now, now. It is not time for games yet. That comes after." Harry's expression left Draco no doubt what these 'games' would involve. "So, let us begin." Harry laid back in the chair, "When that idiot Riddle tried to kill me as an infant a piece of his mutilated soul ended up leeching from my magic to survive. Dumbledore thought that when I died it would either be the end of us both of only the soul piece." he sighed, "He was wrong. It shattered and was absorbed by my soul. The piece was far too small for his personality to survive, or anything of any import really. I got one important piece though. The place he learned of the anchors. You see, he actually found Scholomance. Yes, _The_ Scholomance. The place where the Dark Arts were _invented_." Harry paused as Draco continued to lose colour in his face. "The castle was a ruin, of course. But the library... It was there. All of it." the awe in his voice terrified Draco. "The idiot had no idea the knowledge he had found. All he wanted was immortality." Harry chuckled, "Guess what, I got that too." he leaned forward, "Tell me, Draco, have you noticed it yet?" It took Draco a moment to understand what Harry meant. Then it hit him like a _Reducto_ to the face. Harry Potter didn't look a day over twenty.

"Yes... Not that miserable self-mutilation that Riddle thought cheated death. This," Harry spread his arms, "is _true_ immortality. I will never grow old. None of those who carry my mark will ever grow old. And unless you kill all of us at once... that is impossible by the way, we will always return from death." Draco shivered in fright as the darkness fell back and he saw the dozens of cloaked figures surrounding them. The cloaks had the same symbol that Draco had seen carved on so many doors. "My inner circle." Harry smiled. "A tiny fraction of my followers." The cloaks did an admirable job of hiding any and all characteristics of the persons wearing them. Draco was suddenly reminded of the Unspeakables. "Now, where were we? Ah yes, Scholomance. In my naivety I though I could destroy it. But I was curious. And oh boy, did I learn some surprising things. Combat magic. Enslavement bonds. Spells that make the Unforgivables look like a tripping jinx in comparison. Demonology. Blood rituals. Time magic." Harry paused.

Draco had never been one of the greats but he was no simpleton. At the mere mention of time magic his brain put together the other pieces and it was almost painfully obvious. If it was possible to somehow stop time in an area and still enter it... They could go anywhere, do anything and nobody could stop them... "You understand. Good. And yes, that is how we got Astoria out." That single statement would have caused Draco to draw his wand, odds be damned. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Draco didn't have his wand on top of being in a body bind. "We will get to that part, don't worry." that cold, cruel smile... Draco knew it very well. "At any rate. When I found Hermione she was broken. The memory spells she used on her parents had been miscast you see. Irreversible. But... I'm sure you remember what she is like. One mention of the greatest library in the world and she all but jumped me. Actually, our first time was when she saw it. That was... fun." Harry gazed to one of the figures surrounding them. "Of course we eventually decided to invite others. They all joined me. And before you get any funny ideas... Every one of them had a choice. They chose to follow me." He looked around, "And their loyalty has been richly rewarded." he smiled. "We rebuilt the castle, by the way. It got awfully dreary living in a ruin." Harry smirked, "Now for the good part. We begun our work. Infiltrating everything. Britain, France, The states, _Everything_. But there was one thing I needed to do before I could begin." Harry regarded the almost empty bottle, "Not long now... Anyway," to turned back to Draco, "I found a ritual. It was designed to summon a demon so the wizard doing the ritual could steal its power. The guy who made it got himself and about thirty others killed when the binding runes didn't take. Between me, Hermione, Ginny and Luna we figured that the problem wasn't at the number of sacrifices but the actual runic scheme. There was only one expert who could fix it. One we hadn't approached yet. I'm sure you remember her. Daphne Greengrass." For the first time the glass Harry was slowly sipping from begun to empty, "Well, when I made the offer to her, she demanded I make it to Astoria as well. I think you can guess what choice she made." Harry smiled at the horror on Draco's face. "Yes... She _chose_ to leave with me. But that is not the best part." Harry grinned, he was going to enjoy this part, "See, my mark is somewhat similar to the soul-leash Riddle made. Similar in the principle it requires a murder to take. Daph here killed daddy dearest. Evidently there were some... anger issues from him selling Tori to you." Harry paused. "But do you know what Tori did when she had to kill someone? She took the knife and stabbed her own womb. She killed your son." Draco broke. In all his life he had never been this weak, vulnerable. Back at Hogwarts he had his father, his contacts, the two brutes 'guarding' him... After the war he had the money, the contacts... But as he watched Harry drain the last of the wine, he just knew he would not survive this.

"Oh, and the ritual actually worked." Harry smiled as he got up from the chair. "And it turns out that several hundred sacrifices can summon one _hell_ of a demon..." As Harry moved towards him the room rapidly darkened, until all that could be seen were two glowing green eyes.

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 _ **A/N**_ Oh, and for those interested, next _In the blood_ chapter coming up at Monday.


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